Adam Fein, president of Pembroke Consulting, gave one of the first presentations of the conference, which was titled “Winds of Change.” He proposed that the old model of buying low and selling high is altering. “Wholesale is on the cusp - or in the middle - of a productivity revolution,” he said.
Markets are evolving faster than the channels, Fein said. Most wholesalers are more than 25 years old and their manufacturer-distributor relationships are based on tradition. This embeds extra legacy costs into wholesalers' businesses.